Revolutionary War cannon turns out to be loaded, ready to fire!

Workers cleaning a cannon, last fired more than 200 years ago, were shocked to find that it was still loaded with gunpowder, wadding and a cannonball.

The preservation workers from New York’s Central Park Conservancy were removing rust from the antique cannon, which once fired munitions aboard the British warship HMS Hussar, when they made the explosive discovery…

Dena Libner, a spokeswoman for the Central Park Conservancy, said the workers found the munitions after removing a concrete plug from the mouth of the cannon.

Authorities removed about 1.8 pounds of black gunpowder from the scene and took it to a gun range for disposal…

“We silenced British cannon fire in 1776, and we don’t want to hear it again in Central Park,” New York police said…

The loaded artillery piece was one of two Revolutionary War-era cannons being stored at the park’s Ramble shed, near the 79th Street transverse, according to the affiliate.

“This was an amazing surprise,” John Moore, author of the upcoming book “The Secrets of Central Park,” told WCBS. “It was there for so many years, and people were sitting on it when it was a loaded cannon.”

It’s always the gun you presume to be unloaded that gives you a surprise.